Baker receives APA Excellence in Librarianship Award

06/30/2011

Dr. David Baker received the Excellence in Librarianship Award on June 25 in New Orleans.

Dr. David Baker, Margaret Clark Morgan Executive Director of the Center for the History of Psychology (CHP) at The University of Akron, received the Excellence in Librarianship Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) at the annual American Library Association meeting in New Orleans on June 25.

Baker was selected as the award winner for his contributions in outreach and promotion, service to students and scholars, and collection and preservation efforts in support of the history of psychology. He was nominated by his colleagues and chosen for the award by a selection committee composed of a team of librarians from across the country.

"It is a real honor and one that highlights the outstanding work being done by the staff of the CHP," says Baker.

Baker joined UA as the director of the Archives of the History of American Psychology in 1999. The collection includes the papers of more than 740 psychologists, the Child Development Film Archives, and famous psychology artifacts. During his tenure, he elevated the reputation of the collection, which now is recognized as the world's largest collection of primary source historical materials related to the development of psychology in the U.S. In addition, the CHP is now an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

Under Baker's leadership, the CHP has made the history of psychology accessible to the masses, as well as to researchers from across the world. The CHP supports three endowments, an annual monograph series and a colloquium series, and has a strong presence in social media. The CHP also played a crucial role in contributing to the expansion of the APA's PsycBOOKS database — a source of digitized classic books in psychology — by making their resources available.